Almajiris acquire skills in Katsina

The Almajiri phenomenon is coming to an end in Katsina State, thanks to the effort of the Ibrahim Shema administration. Food and clothing are delivered to the children; they are also acquiring skills.

In Daura, an emirate in the state, Governor Shema has handed out food and clothing items to pupils of Qur’anic schools to keep them from begging on the roads.

Many are concerned that the Almajiri phenomenon is endangering the children, who are enrolled in Qur’anic schools but are often out on the streets soliciting alms and food.

There are worries that their school environments are unsuitable and that their health is compromised. There is also concern on safety and moral issues. But the greatest worry is that not much has been done to help the children.

Shema has stepped in to address that challenge. He has started a pilot scheme with 70 Qur’anic schools in the state. Food and clothing are sent to those schools. The pupils are equally taught skills, on which to productive lives upon graduation. With the success of the pilot scheme, the state government plans to replicate the effort in every Qur’anic school spread all over the state.

Many reckon that the scheme will not only help the pupils to acquire knowledge and self-improving skills, but will also fight poverty in the state, since many of the Almajiri children are from poor homes.

The Federal Government launched an Almajiris Integrated Boarding School Programme in Sokoto, designed to fuse western education into Quranic curriculum and be domesticated in every northern states.

The Katsina pilot scheme, however, does not have the western education component, yet, but may do so in future depending on the success of the trial programme.

In driving the scheme, Shema has a dependable ally in Prof. Aminu Kado Kurfi, the state Commissioner for Education.

While flagging off the pilot scheme at Alarama Mallam Bello Qur’anic School, Shema revealed that the plan has been on the government’s education drawing board since the inception of his administration in 2007.

He explained that it will take time for government to effectively execute an important programme of this nature; it requires adequate planning to ascertain wha is involved.

He revealed that N36m will be spent on the programme monthly in the first phase that would last six months, after which the programme will be assessed for possible expansion to other schools in the state.

Shema said: “Our intention is that we should be able to promote effective teaching and practice of Islamic knowledge among the youth to inculcate the fear of God in the children.

“You are aware that this administration always put education and acquisition of knowledge as the first priority of the government. That is why we will never stop propagating western education and Islamic education as both can always go together.

The Commissioner for Education, Prof. Aminu Kurfi, said in order to properly educate the youthful Almajiri to make more impact in the society, government has decided to promote Quoranic education alongside western instruction.

He said he drew inspiration from the state governor, urging him to continue with his effective leadership. The commissioner added that the governor has made Katsina the first state in the North to devise a workable solution to the Almajiri challenge.

Kurfi said the Shema administration has constituted a committee that visited and assessed Quoranic schools before determining that feeding and clothing the pupils would drastically reduce the Almajiri menace in the state.

Senior Special Assistant to Governor Shema on Almajiri Affairs, Mallam Lawal Mani Gambarawa, expressed appreciation for the pilot programme which is likely to be extended to thousands of similar Qur’anic schools in the state.

Gambarawa said the Almajiri children go out begging because of hunger and poverty of their parents, but he added that change has come since the state government is now feeding, clothing and providing vocational training.

The SSA said: “In Katsina State zone, we have 3,023 Qur’anic schools just as we have 2,689 schools in Daura and 2,653 schools in Funtua, making a total of 8,365 Qur’anic schools in the state. Also, our Almajiri who go about in search of food while studying in their respective Qur’anic schoosls also totalled 460,212 pupils”.

Gambarawa insisted that the state government feed-the-children programme is in the right direction to put an end to excruciating suffering and begging among the Allo school pupils as it would also ameliorate the prevailing insecurity in the northern states and indeed Nigeria.

He therefore called for the co-operation of everyone to make the progamme succeed, as the government cannot unilaterally drive it.

Gambarawa appealed to the well-to-do and the entire Muslim community to support the Allo Model School programme as its success will enhance co-existence in the north and entire country.